Month: February 2018

Here are a few tips on how to successfully develop and implement your email campaigns and product launches. If you’re launching a new product or going for a special sales push, there are a few things you can do that’ll virtually guarantee a higher response rate. These things include split testing email headlines, amping up excitement before the launch and taking advantage of the “crowd effect.”

Here’s a little more detail on each of these tips…

Email Split Testing

Most modern list management software will allow you to split test headlines. Furthermore, you can segment out your list and send emails to only a portion of your list.

If you’re doing a big, important product launch, it can often pay to do something like this:

Create two different headlines, or even completely different emails. Then segment out 25% of your list and split test those two different emails to just that 25% of your list.

Once you have the results from that initial test, send the winner out to the remaining 75% of your list.

Naturally, you should also be split testing landing pages and other factors throughout your campaign.

The Tease > Tease > Tease > One Time Offer Formula

One proven formula for successful product launches involves really getting the excitement level about the new product up, then creating a very limited supply.

For example, you might briefly mention on your blog that something big is coming up. You might then write an email detailing the problem, hinting that there’s a solution coming up without telling your readers what it is.

Then, you do an interview with another well-known person in your industry, again talking about the problem and how amazing it would be if it were solved. You excitedly tell the audience about your new product that’s soon coming out.

You just keep building up the excitement and mystery, releasing just a little bit of new information with every post.

Finally, when you release the product, there will already be a ton of excitement around it. If you combine this with a One Time Offer to create scarcity, your conversion rate will go through the roof.

Take Advantage of the Crowd Effect

The crowd effect simply states that people are more likely to do something when others are doing it. In other words, if a person knows that a lot of other people are rushing to buy a product, they’re more likely to want to buy as well.

How can you take advantage of this?

First of all, creating an active blog, chat room or message board where people can talk about your product or post that they just bought is a great first step.

Recruiting affiliates in your space is another great way. If someone gets one email about your product launch, they may ignore it. But if they get emails for five different people, especially people they trust, then they’ll definitely have to check it out.

Contests are another great way. For example, ask everyone to post a video about why they love the new product. The winner gets all your products, video and audio, loaded on a free iPad. You’ll get a great surge of responses, creating the impression that you have many buyers.

These are just guidelines and examples. Come up with your own specific ways of creating the sense that a lot of people are rushing to buy.

These three things: scientific split testing, the tease and scarcity tactic and the crowd effect are all powerful methods to help increase your response in any email product launch or campaign.

Selling by email is different than selling on a sales page. Sales letters have to work under the impression that they have just one shot to make a sale and have to hammer in all the benefits and go for an instant close. Email on the other hand has the benefit of a relationship and ongoing contact.

Here are a few choice tips on how to use email to sell effectively.

=> Relationship First, Sales Second

Aim to first build trust and reader loyalty. This is what will get your emails opened time after time. Once your emails are getting opened and you have your reader’s trust, then you can safely make sale after sale without alienating your list.

If you sell too much without first building trust, readers are more likely to tune out than buy.

So how do you build this trust?

Provide first class, unique, original content that directly benefits the reader. Every time they read an email from you or buy a product from you, they should be better off. Do this consistently and readers will start to believe in you and your products.

=> Using Multiple-Email Sales Techniques

As mentioned earlier, email marketing allows you to use tactics that just don’t work with sales letters.

One of these is the Problem > Problem > Problem > Solution formula. Simply put, you send a series of emails about just the problem without offering a solution (yet). You can provide a lot of value by just explaining the problem. Then you finally offer an innovative and powerful solution.

For example, say you run an investment newsletter. You might send this series of emails:

1) Why most people can’t beat the stock market index
2) Why most people choose poor money managers
3) Why most people can’t retire by 60 even if they manage their investments right

Then, in the fourth email, you finally reveal your product about smart investing.

If you have strong readership, by the time readers get your “solution” email they’ll be dying to get their hands on the product. Build up the problem while providing value, then provide the solution when they’re already ready to buy.

=> Other Email Sales Tactics

Another effective way of generating sales is to use webinars. Use a webinar to demonstrate knowledge in a particular arena, and then use emails to follow up and close the sale.

Finally, every once in a while offer a sale. Perhaps it’s your birthday sale, or a favorite day of the year sale; whatever the reason is, just a few times a year offer a sale of 15% to 30% off. You’ll make much more than the amount you lose on discounts.

These are just a few tactics that can help you increase your email sales. Start by building the relationship with your list; then use one of these methods to bring in a nice stream of sales.

A lot of email list owners eventually run into the problem of not knowing what to write about. If you ever run into that issue, then perhaps this article can help. Here we’ll go over three kinds of emails that you can use over and over again. In fact, if you just rotate between these three kinds of emails, your business will do very well indeed!

Here are three types of emails that your readers will never grow tired of.

=> #1 – The Mailbag, aka The Q&A

The mailbag is basically when users email you questions and you answer those questions. You pull their questions out of a “mailbag.”

Using just this one technique, dating guru David DeAngelo built a $20 million dollar a year infomarketing business. About 80% of his emails were just him answering customer questions.

If you don’t have users emailing you questions yet, hop on internet forums related to your niche and pull a few questions. Answer these questions in your mailing list and encourage others to ask questions as well.

As long as you’re answering relevant questions that others want to hear the answers to, your readers will never grow tired of these emails.

=> The Personal Story (With a Lesson)

This is a great way to have users get to know you more and connect with you emotionally, while getting a lot of value out of your newsletter.

Tell them a personal story. Make it emotional and make sure it has energy to it. Tie in a “moral” or a lesson relevant to your niche or market.

For example, if you run a website about stock speculation, you might tell the story of how you lost a big sum of money in a short period of time. Then, break apart what you did wrong and turn the story into a lesson.

If you ever have trouble coming up with topics, just take out a sheet of paper and start brainstorming for relevant stories that have happened in your life.

=> The How To

This is a fundamental article template. Basically, you teach your users how to do something.

Once you’ve owned a list for a while, you’ll probably run into the problem of having talked about almost everything relevant to your niche. If you do run into that issue, try sending a “how to” email that’s related, but not necessarily directly in your niche.

For example, if you run an internet marketing website, instead of writing yet another article about how to get traffic, why not try writing an article about how to stay concentrated when working from home? Or about how to get over your first website flop?

If you think a little bit outside the box with your how to topics, the possibilities are really endless.

These are three article topics that you can use over and over again without your users getting tired of them. They never get old, because the actual content is always different. It’s just the framework that stays the same. If you ever run out of ideas, try using one of these three to spark your imagination.

A great email subject line should jump off the page, grab a hold of your reader’s attention and almost force them into opening the email. A poor subject line on the other hand will easily be skimmed over and lost.

How do you write an attention grabbing email subject line that will make the reader stop in his or her tracks? Let’s go a step further…will your subject line prompt the reader to quickly open up the email without hesitation?

Here are a few tips.

=> Use Action and Power Words

The more vibrant and energized your words, the more people are going to be drawn to them.

Take the first sentence of this article for example. If it had just said “A good subject line should catch attention,” how much blander would it be? Phrases like “jump off the page,” “grab a hold of” and “force them into opening” are a few examples of action words.

As you get more experience with writing copy and with writing emails, you’ll start to get more of a sense of what power words you like to use. Vary it up so your readers don’t get bored with them, but keep all your subject lines dynamic and powerful.

=> Say Something Surprising or Shocking

A shocking subject line tends to do better than a predictable subject line.

Here are a few examples:

* Diet

Example: “How to lose weight quickly”
Better: “How I Lost 23lbs by Eating More Cheese”

* Finance

Example: Is Microsoft a Good Buy?
Better: The Only Time You’ll Lose Your Shirt on Microsoft is …

* Relationships

Example: How to Get a Girlfriend
Better: What Sandy (my date) Told Mary After I Left

These are just a few examples of email subject lines that invoke curiosity. They’re counter-intuitive and hint at an entertaining article inside.

=> Imply a Benefit in the Subject Line

Someone who’s reading just the subject line of your email should get a good idea of what the email is about.

Copywriters often make the mistake of writing shocking or controversial subject lines that don’t tell the reader anything about what’s inside the email. Sure, you might catch their attention for a second, but they probably won’t open the email because there’s no implied benefit for them.

The benefit can be directly stated, or it can be subtly hinted at. The most important thing is that someone in your target market would get the sense that their lives might improve if they read what you have to say.

=> Be Different Than Your Competitors

Subscribe to all your competitor’s email lists. Even if you don’t send it to your personal account, at least set up a different email account just to get your competition’s emails.

Always, always, always set yourself apart from your competition.

If you realize that you’re starting to sound like your competitors (“Make money!” “Lose weight!” etc.) then it’s probably time to take a different angle.

Even if the product you’re ultimately selling promises the same benefits as your competitors, that doesn’t mean you have to sound the same.

Learn to differentiate yourself. Learn to imply a benefit in the subject line. Learn to use shock to your advantage. Learn to use power words.

Affiliate Marketing is a way for a company to sell its products by signing up individuals or companies, also known as “Affiliates” who market the company’s products for an agreed upon commission .

Are you thinking about becoming an affiliate? Then make sure you execute the following steps:

Choose A Niche

What is a niche? A niche relates to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.

Find out what your niche (i.e. weight loss, fashion, digital products, etc.) might be, what you’re passionate about, and especially if there’s money to be made in your niche. Money to be made within a niche certainly overrides passionate feelings about a niche…keep that in mind when making your selection.

Research Affiliate Programs

This is where you determine what commissions you would like to be paid. This is also where you determine what products you would like to promote. And this is where you decide whether or not you will agree to accept the terms and conditions of the affiliate program that you’ve selected.

Make sure you don’t rush into selecting an affiliate program. Take the time to read completely through all of the terms and conditions of the program. It’s more important to make a well informed decision that will benefit you in the long. Remember you’re in control of how much you will earn based on the affiliate program you select.

Make sure you select a profitable affiliate program that will pay out at least a minimal commission of 50%. Make sure the product is in demand, which you will know by it’s “gravity”. The higher the “gravity” the greater the demand.

Let me show you what Clickbank means by gravity:

“Grav: Short for GRAVITY™ performance statistic, this number represents a unique calculation by ClickBank that takes into account the number of different affiliates who earned a commission by promoting this product over the past 12 weeks. Since more recent transactions are given a higher value, this number can give you an idea of what products are “hot” at the moment, in terms of being promoted by many affiliates and making a good number of sales. However, high gravity can also indicate that there will be a lot of competition in promoting this product.”

So keep that point in mind if you decide to promote a product from Clickbank.

Set Up Your Website

This is where you take your research, selected product, etc. and put it in a website. Now it’s time to promote your product.

The first step in setting up your website is to purchase a domain. Just like you have an address to your home, a domain is the address to your website. Here you would need to be selective in your domain name, which should be centered around you niche.

Check with various domain providers to make sure the domain name that you’ve selected is available and ready for purchase. That means you will need to have a 1st, 2nd, or maybe a 3rd domain name in mind just in case your 1st selection is not available.

The domain providers that I highly recommend are affordable, reliable, and have excellent customer service:

Hosting is where your new domain or web address will be housed and managed.

Web hosting is a service that you to post a website or webpage onto the Internet. A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed in the Internet.

So when someone types in your website address in their browser, their computer will connect to your server (web host or web hosting service provider) and your website or webpages will be delivered to them through the browser.

Not all hosting providers are created equal, so make sure you do your homework in selecting the right hosting service that fits your needs and your budget.

Here are a few web hosting providers that I highly recommend. They also double as domain providers as well. They are affordable and reliable….and they are all running some fabulous specials really cheap!

Now that you have your domain name, your domain is now hosted, it time to set up a content management system for your site. This is important because this is where you will create the content for your site once you have everything in place.

One really good content management system for your site is WordPress.org. I love WordPress. In fact, my site is a WordPress.org site. I love the versatility and how easy it is to use.

So install WordPress from WordPress.org not WordPress.com. Select a theme which is also a style, or customize one yourself. Now you’re ready to start creating your content.

Select An Autoresponder

What is an autoresponder?

An autoresponder is a service which allows you to automatically send out emails to a group, or to several different groups, of people. In my opinion, it’s essential to have an autoresponder in place when you’re in an online business. An autoresponder keeps you in contact with your customers. For instance, you set up an opt-in page or landing page to invite subscribers to sign up to receive your emails, newsletters, and offers. Once the emails are written, all you have to do is let the autoresponder do the work for you. As an affiliate, it is imperative for you to have an autoresponder. Without one, you can miss out on huge opportunities to connect with your audience and opportunity to make a sale.

There are several autoresponders out there, but not all of them will deliver the same results. I highly recommend the following two autoresponders because of functionality and price point. Research it and make your best decision for your business.

Social media is often overlooked as a method to create an increase in your free traffic. Yet it is significant and can ensure that you have a presence that is solid and that your site is viewed by many.

When you post content that is compelling, it won’t take long to build a loyal following. As a result your loyal following is going to share with others, and to on. Soon you’ll see a significant increase in free traffic to your site. Here are a number of ways you can achieve this.

#1 Create a Facebook Page to promote your website.

A Facebook Page enables anyone and everyone to create an authentic and public presence on Facebook. Unlike a Facebook Profile, a Facebook Page is visible to everyone on the internet by default. You, and every person on Facebook, can connect with your Page by becoming a fan and then you’ll receive their updates in your News Feed and interact with them. Can you see how you can generate free traffic to your site just by creating a Facebook Page? Attracting a new fan means more free traffic to your site.

#2 Twitter

Twitter is an online news and social networking site where communication is done in short messages called Tweets. Twitter is a great way to let your followers know that you have added new content or articles to your site. Make sure you link your Twitter feed to your website and your Facebook feed to your Twitter account and you’ll be sure to get free traffic.

#3 Tumblr

Tumblr is a free blogging tool and social community. Here you can also publish short posts of text, images, quotes, links, video, audio and chats. You can even reblog a Tumblr post that was published on another user’s Tumblelog with the click of the mouse. This is a great way to get your site out front and attract followers generating free traffic to your site.

#4 Pinterest

Pinterest is image based social networking. It’s an online pinboard that collects visual images. There’s no limit in how many boards you can create for your pins. It all works with other Pinterest users interacting with each other by liking, repinning, and commenting on each other’s boards. It is one of the fastest growing social networking sites on the internet and it’s free.

#5 Google+

Google+ is a social network from Google. Here you can share messages with people within your designated circle or with everyone. You have more flexibility with Google+ than with Twitter and works like Facebook groups. Another great way to get free traffic to your site.

Of course you know there are many other social media platforms available, but sharing the few here is a great start. So go ahead, dig right in and generate free traffic to your site.

Don’t forget to sign up for your free eBook here. The free eBook is on Affiliate Marketing, but the information within will benefit all genres of online marketing.

And check out this training course for optimal success. It covers everything from A to Z. Here it is:

The accurate use of keywords is one of many ways to generate free traffic to your website or blog. It is often overlooked, under-utilized, and not misunderstood.

What does that mean?

It means that the keywords you choose should accurately reflect the content you have. The reason we use keywords is to help surfers find the content they are looking for. Choosing popular keywords that have nothing to do with your content is a commonly made mistake – don’t do it! Instead, find the most popular relevant keyword and use it in your title.

Be extremely literal and descriptive in your title and then use your keyword throughout your article several times in a natural way. Never over saturate your article with keywords called Keyword Stuffing.

“Filling pages with keywords or numbers results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking.” –Google

Let’s get technical for a moment.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “keyword stuffing” means using a keyword over and over again in your content in the hopes that it’ll get you a better ranking. For example, let’s say you want to rank for “chocolate chip cookies.” This is what keyword stuffing would look like:

The whole article blog post would continue like that, using the keyword “chocolate chip cookies” dozens or even hundreds of times. Never mind the language is so unnatural it’s almost unreadable. It’s optimized, baby!

It’s also dumb. Here’s why:

Keyword density is only a tiny part of Google’s algorithm. Nobody knows for sure how much, but from what I’ve seen, I would guess it’s less than 5%. Next to the more important factors like domain authority and trusted links, it’s almost completely irrelevant.

And if you take it too far, it can hurt you.

Google’s top concern is the user experience. If all the articles people find are stuffed with keywords, no one will want to read them, and everyone will stop using Google to search the web. They’ll never allow it, and some SEO experts believe they actively penalize it.

But let’s say they don’t. Even if you escape totally unscathed, who do you think is going the link to content like that? Nobody with any authority. And since links are a much more important part of the algorithm, you’re dooming yourself to get ignored forever.

My advice?

Don’t think about keywords at all for the first year of your blog. Just focus on publishing jaw-dropping content and getting as many links as you can. Then, once your blog has some authority, go back and tweak the keywords in your most popular posts without making them sound even the slightest bit unnatural.

Yes, you might lose some opportunities, but your chances of building an authority site are much, much higher. Trust me.

If you have a keyword that’s a bit confusing relating to its meaning take your time to explain to them what you are talking about and what the meaning is. When you use your keyword or keyword throughout your article consider using variations of the word(s) and mixing up the order of your keyword phase.

Take a look at Google Keyword Tool and get familiar with how keywords work. See which keyword search is most used in web browsers and plan how to use it in your article(s).

Keywords are powerful. They help you to place better in the search engines, which means when someone searches for your keyword(s) they are more likely to find you, because you show up sooner in the search engines. This translates to more free traffic to your website.

So, now wasn’t that easy? Just taking the time to choose the best and most accurate keywords can significantly increase your free traffic flow. It will cost you nothing but a little time and you will enjoy huge benefits for your time. What better time to increase your traffic than right now.

Don’t forget to sign up for your free eBook here. The free eBook is on Affiliate Marketing, but the information within will benefit all genres of online marketing.

And lastly, here’s a special that fits right in with this topic. If you’re serious about your online marketing success, take advantage of this opportunity. Here it is:

Who doesn’t like receiving something free? That’s why online freebies are so popular. Freebies bring visitors to your site and when done right they leave the visitor wanting more, which leads to a purchase.

Choosing quality freebies will ensure you have an increase in your free traffic.

What do some of the freebies that have value look like?

Here are some freebies for you to consider.

#1 eBook – give away an eBook and make sure your ad is on it. Let your visitors also give away the eBook. This will increase your ad exposure and as a result increase your free traffic to your site.

#2 Online Classes – Hold online seminars or classes that are free. You can hold these in a chat room. People love free ways to learn something about their interests. Then you can send them to your site for more information or to make a purchase. It’s an easy way to increase your traffic flow.

#3 Webinars – Webinars are another way to teach people. Offer free webinar classes that also send them to your website. A quick and easy way to increase your traffic flow at no cost.

#4 Contests – Contests are a great way to increase your traffic flow. Give site visitors a free entry and let them enter daily. You will be amazed at how much this can impact your traffic. People love to share contests and that means new free traffic for you.

#5 Software – Give away free software or turn part of your website into an area that contains all kinds of free software available for visitors to download. Make sure your ad is inside. Let others give away this software too. Of course, any software you give away must be legally available to do so.

There are all kinds of things you can give away, depending on your niche market. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box.

Your goal is to increase your free traffic. Great news! If you create a social site you can do exactly that, increase your traffic at no cost.

Let’s have a look at what your social site needs to accomplish.

#1 Incorporate Call to Action

Get your visitors involved. Ask them their opinion, thoughts, input. If they like what your site has to offer they’ll likely return. Your call to action will engage your visitors to tell others about you and leave comments on your website. Here’s a great site to help you get clarity and get started.

#2 Make Use of Comments

Comments are a great way for you to interact and engage with your visitors. You can stay in touch and respond to comments that are made. Get in there and dialogue with your visitors. Your involvement is equally as important ad your visitors. You should allot a few minutes daily to respond to comments that have been made. Engaged visitors come back!

#3 Interact With Other Blogs and Sites

Stay connected to other blogs and sites that are in your niche. Leave comments on their posts, get involved with these communities and let people find you. This will increase your traffic. However, don’t hog the site and don’t be a nuisance. Don’t post just to post. Make sure you have something of value to add and make sure your comments are sincere.

#4 Start Your Own Forum

Add a forum to your site. It’s a great place for people to gather and discuss everything from A to Z. They can talk about the niche your site handles or about the weather. Active forums are a great way to increase your visibility in the search engines and that increases your traffic flow. Don’t be surprised if your forum grows rapidly – the good ones do. Just be prepared to add a moderator to the site to ensure things remain civil.

These are just four ways you can create a more social site and increase traffic to your website. There are many more ways to creating a social site while increasing your traffic…free traffic. Take the four options listed here and put them to good use.

With consistency and time, you will get the results you’re after.

Don’t forget to sign up for your free eBook here. The free eBook is on Affiliate Marketing, but the information within fits all genres of online marketing.

In the online world, you either have the budget to attract customers or you don’t. It’s impossible to get a steady business going without a storefront, an inventory, and a little advertising to get the word out. If you need traffic, but don’t have the resources to bring it in, you don’t have to give up hope.

Nothing is free, of course. These methods require a little time and a little elbow grease. But with the right mindset and some perseverance, you can generate lots of free traffic to your site that will put money in your pocket and get you off the ground. Best of all, you don’t need to spend a single penny.

So the only question is, how do you get started with FREE traffic?

Join Forums and Communities

What better way to show off your expertise and skill than helping out people who need it? One of the best things about spending time on message boards is that it allows you to interact with the audience. What you must do is provide viable responses and advice. Be sure not to SPAM with over saturating your responses with you website address. It’s important to first establish a relationship and confidence in those who read your responses, then add your website address sparingly.

Just as importantly, you can hit your exact demographic. Remember that you don’t just have to hit message boards in the community. General sites like Yahoo Answers are a goldmine for grabbing people who have urgent problems. Just remember that your advice needs to stand out from the crowd and be especially detailed and interesting.

You can speed this process up by feeding your target keywords into the message board’s search engine and commenting on recent posts that mention these topics. Don’t do this all at once, or you’ll be outed as a greedy marketer with a product to sell!

In the same way that forum marketing gets you in front of specific people and lets you show off your knowledge, content marketing does the same thing. However, you get to be more in depth and “ask the questions” yourself by raising compelling topics. The benefits of content writing can be exponential, but it’s important to write more than a handful of high-quality articles. It’s the surest way to get your site back-linked by other places in your niche. All of this can be done by starting a blog or newsletter.

Link Trading

Link trading isn’t just some throwback of the 2000’s. It’s a great way to get your website in front of others without spending a lot of money. Email another webmaster and offer to make a guest post or a straight link exchange. This generally works better if both sites are in the same niche and have a little more information on them than just a list of affiliate reviews. Don’t be afraid – you’re going to need to send your request to more than one webmaster. Even if a few don’t respond, the links you get will be well worth it.

YouTube

Yes, YouTube. YouTube is completely free and an available platform for you to increase traffic to your website. Create a YouTube video. Some people are a little shy and don’t want to be seen in a video. Instead, create a PowerPoint slide-show and add your voice. If you don’t want to add your voice, add some music to your slide-show. The possibilities are endless on YouTube.

Create Content Using Hashtags

Whenever you need to stand out, or you feel like you’re in a boring niche, think of some ways to create interesting related content with Hashtags. Using Hashtags is a great way go get followers to your website. Use it in Social Media, Blog Posts, Websites, etc. In fact, go here and download your FREE Hashtag Handbook and put it into action.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarks offer an amazing combination of high traffic and authority, and search engines love seeing that you’re getting some traction on these social bookmarking sites. They attract people in your niche every day. Sign up for these sites. Bookmark the main site and individual pages on your site to pass along more back-links.

It’s a smart idea to use proxies so that these bookmarks aren’t seen as coming from one person. Link to other sites and authorities in your niche to increase authenticity. Rotate the sites you use to bookmark everyday so that you get traffic from multiple sources – search engines love this stuff.